Sprint's about to make its first step to distance itself from unlimited data. Starting October …
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Verizon's 4G murders Sprint's on speed, in our tests and others'. The major reason to pick Sprint over Verizon—if you had the option of Verizon's 4G in your area and had a choice to make, anyway—was for the unlimited data. Now that's gone.

Sprint's plans now cost $45 for 3GB, $60 for 5GB, and $90 for 10GB of combined 3G/4G data. Each additional MB will cost 5 cents. (They used to run at 3GB, 5GB and 10GB of 3G data, with unlimited 4G for all of the plans.) That cuts your value exponentially, if you were using the 4G liberally. (Oh, and it's pretty crummy Sprint's changing the game on people who've already signed up for service with the expectation of unlimited data.)

Meanwhile, Verizon's LTE hotspots are significantly faster, run at $50 for 5GB per month or 10GB per month for $80, and $10 per additional GB, and don't leave you much reason at all to stick around on Sprint.

Sprint's slow pullback of unlimited data leaves from everything but phones raises a few questions: Are they trying to ease congestion on their network? Is unlimited data no longer sustainable? If not, how long will it last for phones, too? Is truly unlimited data near its end in the US? [Sprint via Ubergizmo]